There was a time when the Laysan albatross might seem a perfect icon for the virtues of marriage. When naturalists visited the bird’s nesting grounds in the Pacific, they’d find males and females bonded in pairs for life. Each breeding season the pairs of birds would nuzzle their heads together and perform other adorable courtship rituals. After they mated, the female would lay an egg. Both the male and female would take turns sitting on the nest to incubate it, taking three week shifts. After the chick hatched they’d rear it together until the end of the breeding season. The birds would then fly out to sea in different directions, but they’d return the following year and start up their